I remember the first time I came across a “trigger warning.” I was on a university campus in the ‘90s, attending the first lecture of a new history professor. As I perused her course syllabus, I was impressed with the reading list and organization. Then I spotted an incongruous “warning” to women and African Americans suggesting that they might find some of the material offensive. At first, I thought it was an inappropriate joke. I asked someone about it, and I was informed that “trigger warnings” had become increasingly common in the classrooms of America’s elite boarding schools. I rolled my eyes because I knew right then and there that it would take decades to remedy the problem.
The idea that a history professor would implicitly warn students to be afraid of the past unnerved me. I had always believed very much the opposite — that it was important for young minds to face the past with open eyes. As living members of the human race, we enjoy the great privilege of being able to learn as much from those who came before us as possible. And a person can never learn too much about the past! Whether you take the lessons of history with you to the battlefield, boardroom, small office, or kitchen table, understanding the people, events, and ideas that created today’s world is an invaluable tool for navigating the present and building the future.
I don’t want people to be afraid of the past. I want them to be invigorated by it. I want them to exercise their imaginations and step into the centuries that came before us. I want them to understand the points of view of our ancestors and to appreciate everything that we have inherited from them. Our role as the current custodians of this material world is not to judge previous generations by today’s mores and standards. Our job is to prevent the great lessons of history from ever slipping through our grasp. Sometimes, grappling with the past takes courage!
But the “trigger warning” was just the tip of a much bigger and more socially destructive iceberg. The message on that syllabus was antithetical to personal growth. It communicated three poisonous ideas: (1) History is terrifying. (2) It’s okay to look away. (3) It’s permissible to rewrite history if it makes us “feel” better. None of these messages is true. History is treasure. Understanding the past is the only way of glimpsing the future. And if a person understands that seeing into the future is priceless, then that person should similarly understand that learning from the past is priceless, too.
Furthermore, I do not believe that we should be teaching children to be afraid. Do we want them to learn that a hot stove burns skin? Of course. Should we then encourage them never to sit near a fire? Absolutely not. Courage is a virtue. It comes only when we appreciate the dangers before us and move carefully around them anyway. History is not there to scare us. It can’t hurt us. What it can do is inform us. It can equip us with the wisdom and strength to ably meet the real challenges of this life.
Whether printed on classroom syllabi or repeated as some modern mantra of “political correctness,” “trigger warnings” exude cowardice. Why must leftist politicians recite “land acknowledgments” before government meetings or solemnly intone, “Black lives matter,” during public speeches? Why must they patronize the descendants of native tribes who were here before the Pilgrims? Why do they insist on treating black Americans as if they were children?
But that’s the point, isn’t it? At their heart, “trigger warnings” are infantilizing. Although outwardly respectful, they are outrageously condescending. They say, “You do not possess the intelligence to process the past or the moral strength to persevere after learning what your ancestors might have experienced.” Those who provide “trigger warnings” essentially appoint themselves as higher authorities who are ostensibly capable of doing the tough job of deciding what parts of history should be known and which should be buried.
And there’s the rub! Because as soon as some privileged group of elites decide to become the official “guardians” of history, their efforts to hide the past from the people are never finished. Bowdlerizing history becomes its own end. There is always some new collection of people who might be offended about old news from the past. There is always some old idea from the past that might be newly adjudged as offensive.
This never-ending cycle of taking offense is a hallmark of “political correctness” and cultural Marxism, more generally. Leftism’s engine runs on the fuel of social conflict. The working class must be taught to hate business owners. Blacks must be encouraged to hate whites. Women must replace men. Gays must revolt against the nuclear family. “Transgenders” must rebel against biological sex. Islamic supremacists must wage war against Christians. There must always be “oppressed” groups to support; there must always be “oppressors” to resist. The “revolution” must continue at all times. It can never be permitted to end.
This is how we have gotten to this absurd point in history when self-described “intellectuals” redefine their beliefs every few years. They wanted a color-blind society and an end to segregation; then they wanted race-based affirmative action programs, “diversity” quotas, black-only graduation ceremonies, and awards based on skin color, not merit. They wanted equal rights for women; then they wanted special rights for women; then they wanted to shove men in women’s locker rooms. They believed in genetics and biological sex; now they believe in “gender” and that physical differences between men and women are imaginary “social constructs.” Had I asked a group of university professors twenty-five years ago whether they believed men and women are biologically distinct, every single person would have raised a hand; now those same professors would insist that men can have babies. Moral and intellectual relativism produces cowards.
The antidote to ever-shifting Marxism is to stop dividing people into groups and to begin treating everyone with respect and dignity. Doing so requires that we acknowledge that there are good ways and bad ways to live. There are virtuous ways to behave, and there are sinful ways to behave. Virtue and vice do not change from one decade to the next. Courage, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, faith, hope, and charity cannot be expunged with “trigger warnings” or “political correctness.” No matter how often we fail to live honorable lives, the struggle to be moral, honest, and virtuous provides its own eternal rewards.
These truths echo something President Calvin Coolidge said in a 1926 speech celebrating the one-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence: “If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.”
In other words, America’s Founding principles require no “trigger warnings.” They are just as true today as they were two-hundred-fifty years ago. As Coolidge said so eloquently, “If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.”
Young minds should not be afraid of history. They should approach the past with courage and be grateful for their inheritance. Living virtuously requires the strength to face difficult truths.
